FORMER Transport and Communications Minister Mutotwe Kafwaya says President Hakainde Hichilema is working with people who cannot execute his instructions especially, on cadreism.

In a viral video, suspected UPND cadres beat up Kasama District Administrative Officer in her office because she did not give them empowerment funds.

Commenting on this in an interview, Kafwaya said the Head of State was working with people who were against him.

“When the President makes a pronouncement on cadres and then what we see is that his provincial chairman comes and tells the nation that he is going to establish cadres in markets and bus stops, the next thing we see is the Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security (Jack Mwiimbu) coming to the floor of the House and endorsing the decision of the provincial chairman. The President reiterates his position that ‘I don’t want this cadre nonsense,’ and the same cadres are going to beat up civil servants in full view of people who are supposed to promote law and order. Two days later, these people are not arrested until the Minister of Information and provincial minister speaks,” Kafwaya said.

“Now, if the police are going to arrest those people after ministers speak, could we conclude that no one will ever be arrested until somebody of high ranking has spoken? This is a difficult time we are in. I think that we must pray for the President, he is working with people who cannot execute his instructions. The President is working with people who are learning how to steal, because he said so not long ago. The President is working with people who are working against him.”

He said people surrounding the President painted him badly.

“We need to pray for the holy spirit to come and influence those people who are surrounding the President because they are painting him very badly, unfortunately. They have failed him and are contradicting him like the Minister of Home Affairs in full view of the nation. The President means well. When people are involved in cadreism, arrest them, don’t wait for people to complain and then you start to deal with the sentiments of people, those are symptoms. We need to take seriously what President Hakainde has said and by taking it seriously, those people who have the power to act must not play lip service. I don’t want these people to come and regret like we are doing,” said Kafwaya.

“Look at the campaign promises and how they have turned out to be things you cannot trust. If you look at the Presidential Jet promise, when you look at meal allowances for university students, mealie-meal at K50, all these promises are unreal. Now when the President makes a promise like that, it is the responsible officers to ensure that the promises are fulfilled. It is not the President who has to go on the ground and make sure that the mealie-meal becomes K50, it is the stakeholders and that is the Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Commerce, they have failed.”